These are good points. Fire STARTING is one thing but fire KEEPING is quite another. Most of us carry probably more than one fire starter, but I'd guess fewer of us routinely carry very much in the way of tinder, and especially not kindling or anything to reliably feed and keep a fire going. I don't.

I also like cotton balls in petroleum jelly for compact and lightweight carry. I've used corrugated cardboard strips rolled up inside a small empty cat food or tuna can and soaked in paraffin for campfires, and I have found a road flare to certainly be a reliable source of fire in wet and windy conditions. However, flares are a bit much for routine carry afield. Hmmm, I wonder what could be made of a cut-up road flare's constituent parts for a lighter weight, more compact tinder source?

Supposedly, the heat from a small candle will help dry out tinder before lighting it, but I've never actually tried it in field conditions of cold, wind and wet myself. Generally, I've found a splash or two of Boy Scout Holy Water from my stove (Coleman fuel/white gas) sufficient to get things going well enough and long enough so that any damp fuel stacked next to the fire had time to dry out enough to light and burn.